Katmandu: Nepal has hiked the cost of an Everest climbing permit by a third, arguing it will help tackle pollution and boost safety on the world’s highest mountain, the tourism chief said Tuesday.
Fees for the peak spring climbing season will rise from $11,000 to $15,000 for a permit to scale the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) peak, Narayan Prasad Regmi, director general of the tourism department, told AFP.
“The cost had remained constant for a decade and it was high time to revise that,” he said.
Costs of climbing at less popular — and more demanding — times of year such as during winter or the monsoon rains have also risen at similar rates, including from $5,500 to $7,500 during the autumn season.
Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 14 peaks over 8,000 meters and welcomes thousands of climbers each year.
Foreign climbers already spend tens of thousands of dollars in their attempt to climb Everest, with more than 400 purchasing permits last year, bringing in around $4 million to government coffers.
The funds are put toward cleaning trash from the mountain left by climbers as well as search and rescue operations.
Mountaineering expedition companies hoped the price hike would not deter climbers, warning some might look to scale Everest through China.
“Some climbers might shift to Tibet where the facilities are much better,” said Mingma G Sherpa, who runs the Imagine Nepal mountaineering company, saying the fee must be spent on improving conditions.
“Our government just increases the royalty, but doesn’t do much,” he said.
“It needs to also provide support to the climbers and guides.”
Nepal has been criticized for allowing too many climbers on Everest while doing little to keep the peak clean.
Last year, the Nepal government ordered Everest mountaineers to carry mandatory trackers and carry bags to remove their excrement.
The fee increase was approved by the government in January, but was only published in the national gazette late Monday.
Nepal hikes Everest climbing fee by a third
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Nepal hikes Everest climbing fee by a third
ABC signs Jimmy Kimmel to a one-year contract extension, months after temporary suspension
President Donald Trump won’t be getting his wish. ABC said Monday it has signed late-night comic Jimmy Kimmel to a one-year contract extension.
Kimmel’s previous, multiyear contract had been set to expire next May, so the extension will keep him on the air until at least May 2027.
Kimmel’s future looked questionable in September, when ABC suspended “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” for remarks made following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Following a public outcry, ABC lifted the suspension, and Kimmel returned to the air with much stronger ratings than he had before.
He continued his relentless joking at the president’s expense, leading Trump to urge the network to “get the bum off the air” in a social media post last month. The post followed Kimmel’s nearly 10-minute monologue on Trump and the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Kimmel was even on Trump’s mind Sunday as the president hosted the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington.
“I’ve watched some of the people that host,” Trump said. “I’ve watched some of the people that host. Jimmy Kimmel was horrible, and some of these people, if I can’t beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent, then I don’t think I should be president.”
Kimmel has hosted the Oscars four times, but he’s never hosted the Kennedy Center show.
Just last week, Kimmel was needling Trump on the president’s approval ratings. “There are gas stations on Yelp with higher approval ratings than Trump right now,” he said.
Kimmel will be staying longer than late-night colleague Stephen Colbert at CBS. The network announced this summer it was ending Colbert’s show next May for economic reasons, even though it is the top-rated network show in late-night television.
ABC has aired Kimmel’s late-night show since 2003, during a time of upheaval in the industry. Like much of broadcast television, late-night ratings are down. Viewers increasingly turn to watching monologues online the day after they appear.
Most of Kimmel’s recent renewals have been multiyear extensions. There was no immediate word on whose choice it was to extend his current contract by one year.
Following Kirk’s killing, Kimmel was criticized for saying that “the MAGA gang” was “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.” The Nexstar and Sinclair television ownership groups said it would take Kimmel off the air, leading to ABC’s suspension.
When he returned to the air, Kimmel did not apologize for his remarks, but he said he did not intend to blame any specific group for Kirk’s assassination. He said “it was never my intention to make the light of the murder of a young man.”
